0000000000343431
AUTHOR
M. Pietikäinen
Cohort profile: the cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study.
In Finland, coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence was very high in the 1960s and 1970s. In line with this high incidence, the Seven Countries Study showed that the level of serum cholesterol in Finns was also the highest among the investigated countries in the 1960s. Because several studies indicated that the atherosclerotic process starts early in life, and in accord with the World Health Organization Recommendation of 1978 which stated that studies assessing atherosclerosis precursors in children should be initiated, a program was launched in Finland in the late 1970s to study cardiovascular risk in the youth. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study was designed as a collaborative e…
Life-time risk factors and progression of carotid atherosclerosis in young adults: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study.
Aims The aim of this study is to evaluate whether childhood risk factors are associated with a 6-year change in carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in young adulthood independent of the current risk factors. Methods and results The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns cohort consisted of 1809 subjects who were followed-up for 27 years since baseline (1980, age 3–18 years) and having carotid IMT measured both in 2001 and 2007. Cardiovascular risk factors were assessed repeatedly since childhood. A genotype risk score was calculated using 17 newly identified genetic variants associating with cardiovascular morbidity. The number of childhood risk factors (high LDL-cholesterol, low HDL-cholester…